Kindle eBook version of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 12 now available

The kindle eBook version of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 12 is now available. The print version should be available soon.

amazon.com 

amazon.co.uk 

Gung-Ho Geeks have posted a lengthy, irrevent, frequently funny but also in-depth review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 12

Gung-Ho Geeks have posted a lengthy, irreverent, frequently funny but also in-depth review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 12, which is to be published at the start of May as a paperback and kindle eBook. 

As a side note, Gundrol Ghonardial, the main character in my story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 12, "Vampires in Moratt", appears in just one other story: "Mask of a Mad God" in my collection from Tule Fog Press Welgar the Cursed. 

 

Part of the first online review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 12 by Gung-ho Geeks

Here's a small taster of the irreverent review by Gung-Ho Geeks of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 12, (due to be published at the start of May). I'll post more as soon as the rest is online. 

Opening seconds of the review 

Book Review - Battleborn Magazine Issue 1

REVIEW by David A. Riley

BATTLEBORN # 1

Edited by Sean C. W. Korsgaard

Published by Iron Age Media

From the very first page there is an atmosphere of blatant enthusiasm about Battleborn magazine, and you can tell straight away those involved in it have a love for the genre which is infectious.

The fiction opens with a Hanuvar story by Howard Andrew Jones, perhaps the greatest sword and sorcery writer of recent years, who died at far too young an age in January last year. Though part of Hanuvar’s ongoing saga (see the volumes from Baen Books: Lord of a Shattered Land, The City of Marble and Blood, and Shadow of the Smoking Mountain) “A Stone’s Throw” is a standalone story about an assassination attempt, though the reason for it is far from what even Hanuvar himself at first assumes. A well-wrought tale, it exemplifies why Howard Andrew Jones is held in such high esteem.

In complete contrast the following a tale, “Blood of the Oni” by C. L. Werner, is set in medieval Japan during the time of the Shogun, involving a sorcerously empowered sword, unscrupulous treachery and a truly hellish monster. I loved the neatly placed historical details in this story, which is far more complex than I at first expected and features some of the most realistically detailed sword fights I have ever read. C. L. Werner obviously knows what he is writing about.

Gregory D. Mele, who authored the third tale here, “Jaguar’s Children”, is familiar to me as he had an extraordinary story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (“The Salt of Tilantokka”) last year. This again has a South American setting, laced with ancient peoples and piracy and a strange, sacred, crimson bird. Memorably action-filled.

This is immediately followed by another action story, “Vengeance Vow” by T. J. Marquis, wherein a huge assassin ingeniously tricks his way into a highly-fortified king’s palace during a day of drunken, drug-filled debauchery in honour of the nation’s depraved gods. His mission is to kill the king in retribution for what was done to his people. But things become far more complex than he expects by the time the deed is about to be done.

One of Robert E. Howard’s heroic poems follows, “The Road of Kings”, to remind us of whom we owe the genre of sword and sorcery.

Erik Waag’s “To Boast of Victory” is an amusing tale with more than a few twists, not the least of which comes at the very end. Recommended.

“Temple of the River King” by Lee Patton is a much more sombre affair. Rightly compared to Clark Ashton Smith for his colourful imagery, this again is filled with ongoing action with a protagonist who is uniquely macabre, and would, I am sure, have appealed to Smith himself. I am pleased to see other tales of this ancient, undead warrior have already been written.

I was a trifle unsure about the next story, “The Fury’s Blade” by Robert Rhodes, with its two female Furies, armed emissaries of their church, charged with recovering a stolen relic, namely a sacred cloak. Female sword-fighting protagonists is becoming something of a cliché these days. But I was soon won over. Wonderfully well-written, with a storyline that never becomes predictable or boring, this is another outstanding tale.

It’s good to see that unlike too many periodicals Battleborn does not shy away from publishing reprints. Obviously, we have already had the Howard poem, but there is also a long out-of-print novelette from the pen of the late Michael Shea, “the last sword and sorcery writer to win a World Fantasy Award.” “Pearls of the Vampire Queen” is new to me – although I must admit I haven’t, so far as I am aware, previously read anything of Michael Shea, even though my friend, Jim Pitts, illustrated a deluxe copy of The A’rak (part of Shea’s Nifft the Lean series) for Centipede Press. “Pearls of the Vampire Queen” is another Nifft the Lean story – and a uniquely strange tale it is, highlighting Shea’s intricate writing style and deft use of grotesque imagery. It is set in a very dark world, one in which there is safety for no one, especially those who, if only for the merest moment, succumb to complacency and let down their guards. After reading this, I will certainly seek out other Nifft the Lean tales. And it is to Battleborn’s credit it has highlighted a writer who should not be forgotten.

Other than these novelettes and short stories there is also part one of a three-part serial: “The Last Spell” by Schuyler Hernstrom, which I deliberately left till last to read. And I can see what a cunning ploy it was to include this serial – as nothing could possibly create greater inducement to buy the next two issues than to read the rest of this novel! Extremely well written, wickedly amusing, and filled with inventiveness.

Other than stories, novelettes and a serial there are also a number of columns, which add to the broader interest of the magazine.

At over 200 pages, Battleborn is a substantial read, with ne’er a poor story anywhere in sight. Definitely an important addition to the growing number of sword and sorcery publications appearing today in what is truly an exciting period in our genre.

 

 

Order Signed Copies of The Collected SF, Fantasy & Horror Stories of David A. Riley Volume 1 - 1970-2010 Direct from PUP

 

New Advert for the Sword and Sorcery Books from Parallel Universe Publications

 

Phantasmagoria Magazine #28

The latest issue of Phantasmagoria Magazine includes an advert for Parallel Universe Publication's sword and sorcery books opposite the first page of my story "The Carpetmaker of Arana", originally published in Savage Realms Monthly in 2022 (issue 12).

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy & All Things S&S Facebook Group

It's good to see the steady growth of our dedicated sword and sorcery facebook group centred around our Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy anthology series, now up to over 1,900 members.

Cold Steel and Black Hearts by R. K. Olson

 

Parallel Universe Publications

Although Parallel Universe Publications was founded in 1995 to publish Beyond magazine, it did not get into regularly publishing books until 2015 with the late Charles Black's collection Black Ceremonies and the paperback and ebook versions of Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales, which we previously published as a one off hardcover in 2012. Since then we have brought out scores of new titles, including art books and a collection of weird poetry, some as hardcovers, others as trade paperbacks and ebooks. 

Please follow this link to see all of our titles which are still in print: Our Publications 

First review of The Collected SF, Fantasy & Horror Stories of David A. Riley Volume 1 - 1970-2010

 

"I had the chance to read and review Volume 1 of David Riley's short stories. The review is on Amazon and included below . . .

Mr. Riley owes me one good night of sleep.

Maybe I shouldn’t have read his short horror story “Romero’s Children” before bedtime.

That tale—and thirty others—appear in The Collected SF, Fantasy & Horror of David A. Riley, Volume 1, a showcase of classic British horror: moody, unsettling, and crafted with a storyteller’s sure hand. Riley blends creeping dread with memorable characters and images, the kind that settle under the skin and festers long after the final page.

I’m convinced that John Collier and David A. Riley are kindred spirits. Collier’s stories for The New Yorker weren’t always horror, but in tone, temperament, and style, the two writers share a certain dark kinship.

What stands out most in this collection is the range. Each story delivers its own distinct chill while still feeling part of a unified, haunted world. Riley’s characters feel grounded and real, which makes their descents into the uncanny—and the unsavory—even more effective."

 

R. K. Olson 

Book review: Conan: Songs of the Slain by Tim Lebbon

This review appeared in Phantasmagoria Magazine #28, in April 2026

CONAN: SONGS OF THE SLAIN

By Tim Lebbon  Illustrated by Juan Alberto Hernandez

Published by Titan Books, 2025, £19.99

I am not normally fond of pastiches and have only ever written one myself (on request) and found it a far from enjoyable experience. Therefore I readily admit to starting this book without the greatest of expectations. In fact, Conan pastiches have been a particular dislike of mine for many years. So I was surprised to find the more I got into this book the more I became engrossed in it, and I was actually sorry when I reached the end.

It's not the Conan of Robert E. Howard, of course, if for one major reason: it’s King Conan in his later years, when the rigours of all his past hardships and wounds and his advancing age have taken their toll. Not that any of these dissuade him from doing what he’s always done best, with a broadsword held firmly in his fist.

It’s a very dark book, with several brilliantly described and thoroughly grotesque over-the-top villains out to end the Cimmerian’s life for a variety of reasons, preferably in as terrible a way as possible.

Growing bored as king of Aquilonia it is almost a gift when an old friend from many decades before, who helped them both escape a slave quarry, manages to reach him all but dead from his injuries to ask for help to rescue his enslaved wife and daughter, held by a brutal warrior called Grake, a man even bigger than Conan himself and a formidable warrior in his own right, but one who is viciously cruel. Honouring the debt he owes this man, Conan sets out by himself to fulfil his request. And so begins Conan’s perilous journey through many of the lands of ancient Hyboria into untold horrors, most of them supernatural in one form or another, from liches to flesh-eating giant insects controlled by an insane sorcerer. On his way he meets up with a unique group of potential allies, a disparate band of ex-warriors now travelling as a troupe of musicians going by the name of the Last Song. Despite initial mistrust on both sides they go on to share many of Conan’s perils.

The climax sees Conan up against a trio of his most malign enemies and things have never looked worse for him. It’s masterfully described, and the excitement and dangers certainly pile on top of each other in a most satisfying if terrifying way.

Although I still prefer Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales the most, this comes a close second, and at nearly 300 pages is never boring. It is also, I must add, complemented with some really well executed full-page black and white illustrations by Juan Alberto Hernandez which vividly depict some of its key scenes.

All in all an enjoyable swords and sorcery novel. And I would certainly look forward to any further chapters in the twilight years of the Cimmerian king of Aquilonia.

 

 

Phantasmagoria #28 March 2026

The latest issue of Phantasmagoria (issue 28, March 2026) reprints my dark fantasy story "The Carpetmaker of Arana", which originally appeared in Savage Realms Monthly #22 in 2022.

There is also a detailed review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 11 by Mike Chinn. 

Plus a review of my own: Tim Lebbon's Conan: Songs of the Slain. 

 

 

Unusual activity

Partway through March I remarked on Facebook how there appeared to have been an unusual number of views online of my author blog, which had reached 90,110 by that time.

 

By the end of March, though, this had risen to 116,712, which is absurdly large and is the most in any one month since I created this blog in July 2010.

 

Probably bots of some sort, though why I have no idea.

 

Below is a graph of how many views there have been since the blog began, with just two unusual peaks: September last year when it reached 106,785 and March this year.